Discover Your Business

Sometimes to discover your business, you just have to start your business.

Steven Blank defines a start up as an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. The business model essentially describes how your company will make money. Ask any leader to describe their business model and I can almost guarantee you won't get anything resembling a short answer. The reason is simple, in order to maximize profits and efficiency, the boss has to understand the smallest nuts and bolts of the business. This comes from experience and, most of all, the desire to have this knowledge. One of the benefits of starting a company is that you become the first and hardest working employee. There isn't a job too big or small for someone who can't afford a staff.

All this learning allows for tweaking or complete shifts in the business philosophy as the search continues for a repeatable and scalable model. It's where you meet customers and learn about your product from an outside perspective. It's where you learn the real profit margin on each unit delivered. It's where you discover your business.

The hardest part of this early stage development is the lack of money and direction. This is where that eternally optimistic voice in your head must keep reinforcing faith in your instincts and the product. As this NY Times article points out, even Pandora took 348 pitches to land VC financing.